Women Charge Pa. District Pays Men More for Similar Jobs

Some 60 women who are employees of the Reading (Pa.) School District
have joined the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees (afscme) in accusing the district of job bias on the grounds
that it pays women employees less than it pays men in similar jobs.

On Aug. 24, the women, all of whom work in nonacademic positions,
filed individual charges with the Pennsylvania Human Relations
Commission; the same charges were also filed by the union with the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, which bars job discrimination on the basis of race,
sex, or national origin.

Martha Buck, a labor economist with afscme, says she thinks the
charge is the first of many that will be leveled against districts
across the country. "I think every school district in the country has
the same configuration in their nonacademic work force," she said. "I
think [school districts] are particularly vulnerable to this kind of
[charge]."

"The way salaries are set for jobs in this country is that there is
a decision made for the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to
do the job," Ms. Buck said. "The exception to this rule has always been
jobs predominantly held by women. They have been paid at a rate as low
as you can get."

afscme, which represents 1 million state, county, and local public
employees--400,000 of them women--represents the clerical workers of
the Reading school district, according to Ms. Buck. Their investigation
into pay equity started when they were unsuccessful in getting the
district to address the differences in the salaries of men and women in
similar nonacademic positions.

According to Ms. Buck, afscme conducted an independent study and
found that the district's nonacademic jobs are almost entirely
sex-segregated, with women receiving considerably less money than men
for jobs that require similar levels of skill, effort, and
responsibility.

In the Reading cafeteria, according to Ms. Buck, the job of head
cook, filled solely by women, pays $7,894 per year. The job of
"food-gang worker," a physical-labor job filled solely by men, pays
$16,432 a year.

Reading school district officials were unavailable for comment.

In related developments:

Former Gov. Dan Evans of Washington testified last week in federal
district court that some of the 14,000 women working for the state were
the victims of a sexist salary system.

Speaking on the first day of a trial in a suit against the state by
the Washington Federation of State Employees, afl-cio over what the
union charges are discriminatory practices in wage scales, the Governor
said the situation must be remedied.

Union officials maintain the state is violating the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, the Washington civil-service law, and the state's equal-rights
amendment.

Salary-Equity Study

The Los Angeles Unified School District--which, like many districts
in the U.S., employs more women than men--decided last month to
allocate $30,000 to look at various proposals for conducting a study of
the equity of salaries among the district's approximately 70,000 full-
and part-time employees, 70 percent of whom are women.

The school board plans to review the options presented, including
the cost of conducting the equity study, and will decide by early March
1984 how to proceed with the findings.

Because the study, if it is carried out, will take a significant
amount of time to complete, board members also directed contract
negotiators to begin immediately to identi-fy and upgrade the salaries
of employees in underpaid, female-dominated jobs.

"There seemed to be some general acknowledgement that there are some
underpaid jobs in the district," said Sheldon E. Erlich, district
public-information officer, "and since 70 percent of the jobs are held
by females, [the board decided that] they may as well start now" to
determine what positions are being underpaid. Seventy-one percent of
the district's teachers, 90 percent of its instructional aides, 93
percent of its office and technical workers, and 55 percent of its
cafeteria workers, custodians, and bus drivers are women, Mr. Erlich
said.

Abby J. Leibman, acting director of the district's Commission for
Sex Equity, called the board's action a positive step and said it
represents "a good-faith effort on their part to move ahead on this
issue."

Ms. Leibman cited 1981 figures compiled by the commission showing
that jobs in the district that required little education and training
and that were traditionally held by men had higher pay levels than jobs
that required more educational or work experience and were
traditionally held by women.

According to the 1981 report, those who held the position of
painter--90 to 100 percent of whom were male--were required to complete
an apprenticeship and have one year of experience as a journeyman.
Painters earned approximately $22,000 each year.

In contrast, secretaries--90 to 100 percent of whom were
women--needed two years of clerical experience. They were paid
approximately $12,500.

And for teaching positions, 70 percent of which were filled by
women, the requirements included a bachelor's degree, a teaching
certificate, and two semesters of state-required student-teaching
experience; average starting salaries in 1981 were approximately
$12,550 for 10 months.

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